by David Wood
Chapter 41
“You realize I know what you’re up to?” Bones lay stretched out on the hotel bed, tossing his Recon knife in the air and snatching the falling, spinning blade just before it hit him in the face. He’d been at it for the past ten minutes, complaining all the while about boredom and insomnia.
“What are you talking about?” Maddock groaned. Sleep eluded him as well, but he’d at least tried harder than Bones to catch some shut eye.
“Only getting two rooms. You’re hoping I’ll keep you from hooking up with Jade.”
“I’m not going to hook up with her. You’re the hookup guy in this partnership.”
“You’re not planning to hook up with her, but I know how things go when you meet up with an ex. It starts out friendly, and then it gets nostalgic. Next thing you know, you’re wondering why you ever dumped her in the first place. It’s psychology and hormones.” Bones caught the knife again and flung it across the room where it stuck in the back of the desk chair.
“You’re paying for that.” Maddock sat up and rubbed his eyes. “You’ve been through this before?”
“Are you kidding? I hook up with my exes whenever I get a chance. It’s a lot like makeup sex. The difference is, I don’t get into long, committed relationships like you do. I’ve tried a few times, but it doesn’t last.” He got up, retrieved his knife, and sheathed it. “It’s bad enough you want me to run interference for you, but you’re messing up my game. Sofia looks like a mountain I’d like to climb.”
Maddock ignored the labored metaphor. “Wait a minute. You think it’s bad I want you to keep Jade away from me? I’m being faithful to your sister.”
“It’s not faithfulness if somebody has to make you do it. If you’re going to go back to Jade sooner or later, I’d rather Angel find out now, instead of down the road. It’ll hurt her less.”
“It gives me a headache when you say something that makes sense.”
“Screw you, Maddock.” Bones smiled to show he had not taken offense. “I’m going to get some fresh air before I go stir crazy.”
There came a soft knock at their door. Bones gave him a look that said, What did I tell you? He opened the door to find Jade standing there, looking abashed.
“I… needed to talk to Maddock about something.”
“Go ahead. I’m going out for a few minutes.” Bones left without looking back.
Jade sat down on the bed, facing him, and gazed at him, her brown eyes shining with deep emotion.
“What did you want to talk about?”
“I’m not sure.” She looked down at her hands. “It was fun today. You know, solving the puzzle, proving a legend was true, almost getting killed.” She laughed. “God, I’ve missed it. I know that sounds crazy, but I never feel more alive than when I’m with you.”
“Nostalgia’s a funny thing. It makes you forget the bad times.”
Now, Jade met his eye. Her gaze was hard, but her words soft. “You’re trying to sound callous, but I know you better than that. Tell me you don’t feel it too.”
“Of course I do. And yes, our highs are pretty high, but you can’t deny that our lows were sometimes about as low as you can get.” He poured all his effort into ignoring her eyes, which always mesmerized him, and her other features that he found just as enticing, and concentrated on the bad times: the fights, the jealousy, the months apart.
“It’s called a roller coaster, and people love them. How boring is life if there aren’t any ups and downs?”
Maddock had no reply.
“You don’t have to give me an answer. Just promise me you’ll think about it. About us.” Jade’s smile faltered and faded into a tiny frown. She stood and headed for the door.
“Leaving already?” Maddock didn’t know why he’d said that. From the time they’d checked into the hotel, he’d wanted nothing more than for the two of them to keep their distance from one another.
“I want to get back to the room before Bones tries something with Sofia.”
“He won’t be happy.”
“He will when I remind him about the punishment for adultery in a Muslim country.” She looked back over her shoulder, a wicked gleam in her eye. “I don’t actually know what the law is in Egypt, but I’ll make up something suitably horrible.”
“Nice one.” Maddock winked at her. “Sleep well.”
Jade looked at him for another long moment before opening the door. “Goodnight, Maddock.” She stepped outside and closed the door.
Maddock stared at the door, fighting an irrational urge to go after her. What was his problem? He was in a good relationship with a girl he’d known forever. Why would he even consider throwing that away?
He turned out the light, yanked the covers over his head, and, when Bones returned a few minutes later, pretended to be asleep. It was going to be a long night.
Chapter 42
“According to Krueger, Pierre-Charles L’Enfant, who designed the master site plan for Washington, D.C., also known as the ‘L’Enfant Plan,’ was a French architect and Freemason handpicked for the job by George Washington, who was also a Freemason. L’Enfant’s original design incorporated Freemason, Egyptian, and even Atlantean symbolism.” Avery had spent the flight from Miami to Washington devouring all of Krueger’s research on the Templars’ connection to the capital city, and supplementing it with her own research. The more she learned ,the more fascinated she became. A scholar could devote her entire career to studying the connections between the ancient world, secret societies, and Washington D.C. Now, as their driver, a government agent driving a boring, gray sedan, drove them to their destination, she shared her findings with Tam.
“Skip to the part we care about.” Tam was checking email on her phone, but seemed to be listening intently.
“Just like the labyrinth Maddock and the others found at Giza, a network of passageways runs beneath the national mall and all the major structures in the vicinity. Somewhere amid this warren lies a vault containing the accumulated treasures of the Templars in America. Beginning in the late 1930s, the Freemasons constructed a new passageway to the vault, and hid the entryway beneath a memorial that incorporated both Templar and Atlantean symbology; the symbols to serve as a sign to the initiated.”
“Tell me about the symbology.” Tam pocketed her phone and gave Avery her undivided attention.
“Look at this aerial photograph.” Avery laid Krueger’s notebook between them. “See how the entablature is a perfect circle?”
“I’ve been there before, and I can see how it’s reminiscent of a Templar church. But I don’t see Atlantis here anywhere.”
“Look outward from the memorial. What do you see?”
Tam stared for a moment, and then her eyes lit up. “Rings of concentric circles on a piece of land surrounded by water.”
“Is that Atlantean enough for you?” Avery could have gone on, but she could tell Tam was convinced.
“We’re here, Ma’am.” The driver stopped the car and opened the door for them. “Shall I come with you?”
“Remain here with the car. I’ll call if I need you.”
Bathed in moonlight, its interior lights glowing, the Jefferson Memorial stood enshrouded in the ethereal curtain of fog that rolled in off the Potomac. In the silence of the midnight hour, the place had a ghostly quality to it.
Tam made a beeline for the monument, and Avery hurried to keep up. As they drew closer, she noticed yellow tape encircling the monument and signs reading, Temporarily Closed.
“Uh oh. I wonder why it’s closed.”
“Are you kidding?” Tam gave her a quizzical look. “I closed it. Rather, a friend closed it for me. And there he is. Hey, Tyson!”
Daniel Tyson was a tall, dark-skinned man who appeared to be about the same age as Tam. Light from the memorial reflected off his shaved head, and he greeted Tam and Avery with an easy smile and bone-crushing hugs. His tailored suit was cut to accentuate his athletic figure.
“Tyson is a friend a
nd former colleague,” Tam explained. “He used to be FBI, now he’s with the NPS and calls it a ‘step up.’ He’s also a Lakers fan, which tells you he knows nothing about basketball.”
“Please.” Tyson’s speech was flavored with a light touch of the Caribbean, adding to his aura of congeniality. “You’ve never balled in your life, Broderick.”
“Not on the court, anyway.” Tam gave him a wink.
"My court is always open if you ever feel so inclined to brush up on your...skills!"
Tam gave his arm a squeeze. “Thank you for doing this for us. We’ll try to make it quick.”
“Not a problem. Do you need anything else from me?”
“Just keep prying eyes away.” Tam thanked him again, gave him another hug, and led them into the memorial.
“I found pairs of numbers, get this, written in the margins in invisible ink. I think they correspond to words in the various inscriptions on the walls.”
“Invisible ink? How’d you know to check for that?”
“My father was obsessed with pirate treasure, legends, and secrets. I picked up a few things here and there.”
“Good job. Let’s get to checking the panels.”
“No need. I looked up the various inscriptions online and worked on it during our flight. I think I’ve come up with something that makes sense.” She opened the notebook and read aloud.
“Progress of the human mind. Enlightened discoveries. Truths remain ever in the hand of the master.”
“The master? You mean Jefferson over there?” Tam assessed the bronze statue. “He’s big, but I don’t think there’s a tunnel in his hand.”
“I’ve got an idea about that.” Moving to the statue, Avery climbed up onto the pedestal. There was little room to stand and the surface was slick, but she clung to the president’s cloak for balance.
Ever in the hand of the master.
In Jefferson’s left hand, he clutched a scroll. Avery wasn’t tall enough to get a good look, but, if she stretched, she could just reach it. She ran her fingers across the top and found what she was looking for. A pyramid-shaped indentation.
“It’s here! Give me the crystals.”
Tam, looking bemused, handed her an envelope in which she’d put one each of the crystals Maddock and Bones had recovered in Japan. The first crystal was not a fit, nor was the second, but the moment the third crystal slid into place, the empty rotunda echoed with the thrum of cogs turning somewhere below ground. The statue lurched and Avery leapt off the pedestal, not quite pulling off a clean landing. She sprang to her feet, but Tam hadn’t noticed. She watched as the statue slid to the side, revealing a stone staircase.
Tam looked at Avery and smiled.
“Who needs them boys? You did it!”
Avery couldn’t help but blush a little at Tam’s praise. She had to admit she was more than a little proud to have done all of it: tracking down Krueger, finding the connection to the memorial, and deciphering the clues, without her brother’s help. Okay, a lot of the credit went to Krueger, but she was still going to enjoy the moment.
“You coming?” Tam was already ten steps down the staircase, flashlight in one hand, Makarov in the other.
“Yeah, sorry.” Avery took out her Maglite but left her 9 millimeter in her coat pocket. She couldn’t imagine encountering anything down here that would require a weapon. Head buzzing with the thrill of discovery, she followed Tam down into the darkness.
The air grew damp and musty as they made their way deeper. After a long descent, they reached a level passageway. At first, Avery was taken aback at the relative modernity, but reminded herself that this tunnel had not been built by the Templars, but was a twentieth century link to the Templar vault. Cobwebs hung from the ceiling and a thin sheen of dust coated everything. No one had passed this way in years, maybe decades.
Minutes later, they found themselves facing a dead end.
“Okay. What now?” Tam shone her Maglite all around. “Did we miss a door somewhere along the way?”
“I don’t think so.” Avery moved closer and ran her hand down the wall. Her fingers passed over a soft spot and she paused. “I think I might have something.” Pulling the neckline of her shirt up to cover her nose and mouth, she brushed away the accumulated dust and mold, revealing another indentation like the one on the statue. She quickly found the proper crystal and fitted it into the slot. Some unseen force tugged it into place and the door swung back.
They shone their lights through the doorway and Avery sucked in her breath. “This is really it!”
Chapter 43
The Templar vault looked like an oversize version of the interior of the Jefferson Memorial—round with a low, vaulted ceiling and columns interspersed around the sides. Shelves were carved into the walls between each set of columns, with piles of scrolls, books, and artifacts heaped onto them. The room itself was filled with statuary from all over the world and various historical epochs. She recognized Greek, Egyptian, and Chinese sculpture, as well as Roman busts on pedestals.
“This is…” Tam couldn’t finish her sentence. “To think this has been down here all this time and no one knew.”
“Someone knew,” Avery said. “I can’t imagine the Freemasons let the knowledge die.”
“I wonder,” Tam mused, “if they kept the knowledge within an inner circle, and something happened to those in the know before they could pass the information along. It would explain why nobody’s been down here in forever.” She shook her head. “That’s a question for another day. We need to get to searching. Where should we start?”
“Um.” Avery bit her lip. She hadn’t considered how they would go about sorting through the accumulated treasures of the Templars. “This could take a while.”
“Time we might not have. Unless the men they sent to Egypt were idiots, the Dominion knows the Templars cleared out the Hall of Records. They’ll try to extract the information from Krueger. He’s unlikely to hold out any longer than he did before he revealed the secret of the labyrinth.”
“In that case, we’d better hurry. You go left, I’ll go right?” Avery skirted the perimeter of the vault, examining the contents of the various shelves. She saw that there was at least some organizational system here. The first section contained Hebrew texts, a golden menorah, and a few artifacts she didn’t immediately recognize. In addition to the ancient texts, the section also contained more recent copies of various writings, some in Latin, others in Greek, and still more in English. So the material was organized by topic as well as origin. Perhaps they should search out, not the Egyptian collection, but one devoted to Atlantis.
The next section contained Christian writings and a few small chests that likely contained relics. She took a few steps back to get a different perspective on the layout. As she ran her light up and down the wall, she noticed the symbols carved above each set of shelves—a menorah above the Hebrew section and a cross over the Christian section.
As her eyes followed the beam of her light as it swept in a circle around the vault, she saw more symbols: the eagle of Rome, the Eye of Horus, and…
“The trident! It’s over here.” She hurried over to where a statue of Poseidon guarded the shelves. Tam joined her a few seconds later.
“Some of this is really old. It might crumble if we touch it.” Tam passed her fingers over a scroll, as if she could capture its contents through proximity. She hesitated. “How do we know which of these contains the information we need?” She swept her light up and down the shelves. “There’s too much to carry.”
“We need Sofia,” Avery agreed. “I’ve picked up on the meanings of a few of the symbols but not enough of them to translate.” Her eyes roved over the collection and fell upon an object so different from the others she almost wondered if it were mislaid.
Laying her Maglite on the shelf, she picked up a leatherbound journal and opened it to the first page.
“That’s anachronistic,” Tam said.
“It’s more than that
.” Avery’s hands trembled. “This journal is an eighteenth century scholar’s attempt to tell the true story of Atlantis based on a lifelong study of this archive.” She turned the page and almost dropped the book.
“Are you all right?”
“Look.” Avery could scarcely manage to believe her eyes. A hand-drawn map of the world showed the locations of Atlantean cities: in Spain, Cuba, Japan, and the middle of the Atlantic. Dotted lines connected them all to one mother city. With trembling hands, she passed the book to Tam, whose jaw dropped.
“That can’t be right,” she whispered.
“Yes it can. You see, it wasn’t always…” She paused as a beam of light coming from the direction of the doorway sliced through the darkness.
“Oh, my God. What have you two found?” It was Tyson.
“What are you doing down here? I asked you to keep people away.” Tam’s eyes narrowed at the sight of her friend.
“I’m sorry. I looked in to make sure you were all right and I saw the Jefferson statue moved to the side. Then I noticed the staircase and I just couldn’t believe it. I called down to you and, when you didn’t answer, I thought you might be in trouble.” He shone his light around the vault, taking in the treasures of human history. “What is this place?”
“Sort of an old library,” Tam said.
“Right.” He glanced at the book in Tam’s hand, and the map. Avery didn’t miss the way his eyes widened. Without warning, he drew a Glock and leveled it at Tam’s face. “Give me the book.”
Tam didn’t flinch. “How can you possibly be one of them?” She bit off each word, fire blazing in her eyes.
“Who? The Dominion?” Tyson laughed. “Not a chance. I’m too, shall we say, tainted by the blood of Cain for their liking.”
“Then why are you helping them?”
“Let’s just say that, on occasion, we have mutual interests.”
“Who is we?”
“The Trident.” As if by reflex, Tyson’s free hand moved to a spot below his throat.